


Red, Black, Blue

by reshirama



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Job Paths, Platonic Soulmates, lots of personal hc stuff abt lu's past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 21:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reshirama/pseuds/reshirama
Summary: “Your blood won't be red any more, Ciel. Demons don't bleed red, y'know?” Her eyes are stern, so far removed from her their usual playful glint. She looks more like the queen, the warrior he's seen in her memories than the exuberant youthful Chilliarch  he's so used to by now. But he's also seen her when she was truly a child, thousands of years ago, in her own dreams, genuinely innocent. There is a wisdom to her, more than there will ever be to him, all crammed into her tiny frame.Ciel becomes the Dreadlord. Lu worries.





	Red, Black, Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a headcanon of mine that demons are... not very human. In my headcanon, they're more similar to humanoid reptiles, so the process of a human becoming a demon is very painful.  
>  There's a little stuff about some headcanons of mine about Lu's past too, because canon gives us very little about it and I have a very detailed backstory for her, oops.   
>  Enjoy!

“Ciel.” Lu says. Her eyes are serious, too serious, and the contract is full of emotion. Ciel looks down at her, and blinks. He hasn't seen her this serious in a long time. “Ciel, I don't want to hurt you.”

He lets out a rough laugh. “I'm sure it won't hurt.” Lu's expression says otherwise. “Lu, I've had to deal with pain before.” He shoots her an image of after Verni's death, finding all the weapons he could in the house to do his first killing, hands shaking so bad the knives slipped and cut him. Red blood everywhere, red, red, red.

“Your blood won't be red any more, Ciel. Demons don't bleed red, y'know?” Her eyes are stern, so far removed from her their usual playful glint. She looks more like the queen, the warrior he's seen in her memories than the exuberant youthful Chilliarch he's so used to by now. But he's also seen her when she was truly a child, thousands of years ago, in her own dreams, genuinely innocent. There is a wisdom to her, more than there will ever be to him, all crammed into her tiny frame.

But they are so alike, the two of them. They had to grow up so fast, too fast. She's told him she had an older brother called Rosh. He died when she was twelve years old (young for a human, infinitely more so for a demon, who live two hundred years at worst, thousands at best), killed by a gang on the streets. She was part of a group of orphans who scavenged for food in the heart of an abandoned town, and were hunted for fun- hunting children for fun!- by a group of corrupt bounty hunters. She had been the only one to survive.

They are so alike.

“Good. I've seen enough red to last me a life time, Lu.” He takes her hands, sending feelings of comfort and hope through the contract.

“I just don't wanna hurt you. I wouldn't ever hurt you.” Ciel feels a bit of a twinge in his stomach (Guilt? Anxiety? Fear?) and squeezes her hands.

“Lu, we've been through worse than this. C'mon. I need to protect you. You're all I have left, and I'm not strong enough to do it as I am now.”

“I don't need protecting.” Lu's lip curls, but she's defrosting, sending waves of consent through the contract. Ciel leans down and presses his lips to her forehead.

“I'll keep you safe, Lu, I swear.” He hears a little sniffle from her (two thousand years and she's still so emotional) and the contract pulses with images of Rosh, cut in half, of Nayria, a sword through her chest, of himself falling in front of her, of blood, red, red blood, of loosing so many, so much, of Karis laughing, her hand stroking her face as the chains twisted in her guts.

“You dummy, Ciel. I'm the one keeping you safe.” And then there's a crack, and Ciel lets out a cry of pain and falls to his knees.

Lu is there in a moment, hands free of her gauntlets, palms against his face. Not for the first time, he feels how inhuman she is, revels in it, in the ridges between her fingers, the spurs on her palm that could rip his face open, if she so desired, but she is gentle. She is so gentle.

His arms come round to cradle her, and he feels her spine, almost reptilian, curved and barbed, runs his fingers down it. His spine will soon be like that.

Lu lets out a little whimper, and another wave of demonic energy rushes through Ciel's body. This time his neck arches, and a spine, sharp like a knife, cuts through his skin. He feels blood running down his back, hears it begin to hiss. He hasn't been completely human in a long time, but he's taking a step over some invisible line here, one from which there will be no turning back. Not ever.

He takes the step himself. He jumps over that line to join Lu, who is standing on the other side waiting. He'd do anything for her. He'd take any bullet, any torture. For anyone else this pain would be just that, but for him, for him it is rebirth. A new body, flawless and powerful. New blood, no longer red but something else. Something new.

He sees his old life flash before him as his spine elongates and arches, snapping. His teeth arch within his mouth, like razors. His tongue is pointed, almost thin, like a dragon's. He runs it over his new teeth. They feel like the ones a dog sunk into his thigh once, like there's too many in there to keep closed, and yet his mouth does. One of nature's miracles. He is a miracle.

As the next wave of pain streaks through him (fingertips arc into claws, his toes scratch holes in the soles of his shoes, his legs burst into scales at the knees, at his palms), he tips his head back and howls. But not in agony- in joy. Lu raises her head with him, and wails, a high pitched harmony of celebration. The contract pulses. As one, their claws break the earth, and Lu's claws break his skin. Blood trickles onto the ground. Black blood, all traces of red gone. Black blood, with streaks of blue shining in it. Lu's blue.

Ciel lets out one low warble of happiness in his throat, hears Lu reply, and then darkness creeps into the side of his vision, and he falls. The world spins away.

 

When he wakes up, he's in bed. Spikes and spines rub all over his body like fish scales, between his fingers and toes, the top of his mouth, even catching on his eyelids as he blinks.

“Ciel!” Lu chirps, and bounces onto the bed. At the end of the room, the Erbluhen Emotion stands, eid sparkling in his hand, eyes wary. Eh, to be expected. Next to him, Raven and Elesis. Their faces worry Ciel- he likes those two, they're straight forward and kind. So why do their faces look so scared?

“Hey, guys, what's wrong?” he says. Ain finches, Raven frowns and Elesis' hand goes to her sword.

Lu's laughter rings through the room.

“Ciel, you dummy! You're talking in demonspeak! They can't understand you, silly!” Her hands brush over his face, and she pokes at him through the contract playfully.

He takes a moment, waiting for the right language to come to mind. It slips over his tongue, unnatural and strange in his new, teeth-filled mouth.

“C-C'mon. Why are y'all looking at m-me like that?” His tongue dances over his canines again, sharp tools for destruction, for protection.

“Gimmie a mirror. He hasn't seen it yet.” Lu turns around, bunches spinning, and Elesis hands her one from the bedside.

She holds it up, eyes bright.

Ciel's hair comes up to run through his hair, eyes wide. It's... white.

“Look! We match now!” Lu's face is bright, but there's tension in the contract. What if he wants his old hair back? What if he doesn't like how he is now? What if, what if, what if...

He sends a wave of reassurance back at her. His old body hurt in ways this one doesn't. Besides, he can protect her now. Like he never could before.

Getting out of bed is torture. His legs scream in protest, and the spurs and spines catch on each other. He feels unwieldy and heavy. Raven and Elesis support him and Lu skips ahead, chattering at Ain who ignores her completely.

“I can walk by myself now, I'm good.” Elesis lets go of him, but Raven gives him a long look.

“Are you sure?”

“Please, I'm alright. I'm not a baby, y'know.” Ciel shrugs him off, and stumbles forward.

“Compared to me, you are.” Lu turns round and grins at him, teeth sharp and glinting in the morning sun.

“Yeah, yeah.” He ruffles her hair, and she chirps happily. With a hiss, Ciel grabs his coat and swings it carelessly over his shoulders. The pain in his body is beginning to fade, and he stretches. His new bones creak. Lu opens her arms and laughs, and Ciel picks up and they spin, spin in the new sun, in the start of something new.

 


End file.
